Football fans all over the world are trying to figure out which team will win the World Cup and will bet some money (depending on their budget) on it. 

The World Cup, when it kicks off on June 11th, will bring untold opportunities to fans of football betting. With the action packed month full of games, it will be like Saturday afternoon almost every day of the week! There are many tempting opportunities to make the best of online sports betting during World Cup events, in particular the group stages, where the seeded teams often prevail against weaker opposition. While this clearly won’t provide as many opportunities for landing big odds, it does, in a nice way, lean towards the punter gathering in some nice returns on what can be deemed as “bankers.” Take England’s group for example, you would expect them to win throughagainst the likes of Algeria and the USA without too much fuss, and if they are confident about reaching the World Cup Final, then they shouldn’t have much trouble against Slovenia either. England are 6/1 at Bwin to lift the 2010 FIFA World Cup. 

The format of the World Cup therefore, presents wonderful opportunities for betting. Not only will the punter be able to make the most of individual match betting, but the group stages provide good options for backing favourites to win the Groups. Taking that a step further, most online bookmakers will provide odds on “To Qualify” markets, if you think a particular group may be a close call, such as the group which contains Brazil, Portugal and Ivory Coast. It may be harder to call the Group winner, but, taking Brazil for example to at least qualify should guarantee some returns. This is a great option to explore, and watch out also for special offers from online bookmakers, who promote offers on naming all group winners. With special bets, you can also explore markets, such as “All Seeds to Win Their Groups” and “Highest Scoring Group”. The sheer potential for betting opportunities on the World Cup, should keep punters easily absorbed throughout the competition. 

That of course does not mean that all the fun of betting cannot start now. It can! Just head on over to your favoured online bookmaker, and you will, more likely than not, see the prices up, not only on the outcome of the groups, but for the individual group matches as well. Browsing these markets gives a great reminder as to just how much top level football action the world has to look forward to in South Africa. Most notable at the moment of course, is the market for the Outright Winner. Ever since qualifying, Spain and Brazil have been in a two way tussle to be favourites at the bookmakers. Despite there being 32 teams in the tournament, looking at things realistically, a winner is only going to come from a very select group. Just look at past history to confirm that it really takes something special to win the World Cup. 

While Brazil and Spain are clear favourites, the chasing pack begins with England and Argentina. Then comes the strong pack of the rest of the Europeans, like France, Italy, Germany and Holland who should be able to put in strong challenges, but may still have a way to go to close the gap on the leaders. Beyond that, you are looking at a major shock to find a World Cup Winner. No doubt, because the tournament is being held on the African Continent for the first time, the African teams will draw a lot of betting interest. 

As much excitement and rivalry which the 2010 African Cup of Nations provided, the apparent lack of quality, possibly proved that even the strongest African teams like Ghana, Cameroon and the Ivory Coast, really may be facing a tougher task than the romantic idealist would like to think. Expecting any of them to take the World Cup should be duly noted in the extended prices being offered. Indeed, with the weather conditions likely to favour the European sides at that time of the year, Brazil and Argentina should really only be the main challengers outside of Europe. Which leads us nicely into more betting options, for if you don’t want to select a team as winner, you can always pick the “Continent of Winner”, “Top 3 Finish” or simply “To Reach Final”. 

The options for the World Cup 2010 betting are already out there to be explored. Keep an eye out for really interesting themed specials, like “France, Holland and Germany To Reach Last 16” or “USA and Mexico To Reach Last 16”. The options are pretty much endless, and that is without delving into individual game sub-markets when the action is right upon us. Then it is possible to enter into the fun of Live In-Play betting as exampled perfectly with Bet365, and further markets such as goal-scoring and goal-scorer options.